Today was our first full day in Cambodia, and it was jam-packed. After breakfast, Chanseng, our much adored tour guide, took us to the Royal Palace of Cambodia. With its classic Khmer roofs and ornate gilding, the Royal Palace dominates the diminutive skyline of Phnom Penh. Despite the heat, we were all able to appreciate the grandeur of the palace, and Chanseng explained to us the significance of the various spires and sculptures adorning most of the buildings. Many of us were taken aback by the perplexing lack of security in the palace--for instance a 17 kg 24 karat gold statue with the largest diamond in Cambodia on its forehead seemed to be guarded only by a 2 inch padlock and a couple listless security guards idling around inattentively. Much of the palace was clearly influenced by a variety of religions and cultures, as we saw many Buddha statues, French chandeliers, Hindu gods, and Khmer architecture, often side by side. After completing the tour of the temple, we headed to a screening of the film "The Missing Picture," an Oscar-nominated documentary about the Cambodian dystopicide that took place in the late 70's under the Khmer Rouge regime. The film left all of us speechless as we attempted to process the unspeakable horrors presented to us in the film. Afterwards we were shown an archive featuring clips of real footage taken by Khmer Rouge cameramen.
For lunch, we went to a small restaurant/shop run by the organization "Daughters of Cambodia," which helps facilitate a path to self-sufficiency for young girls in the sex industry. After eating some delicious sandwiches, we were shown into a back room where we saw a video detailing the work and goals of the organization. "Daughters," as it is know for short, provides jobs, professional and domestic skills training, and a basic education to each girl they take in. All of our waitresses were beneficiaries of the great work of "Daughters." The money from our meal and shopping all went to the program. --Sachi & Sophia
This morning we were rudely awakened at the prenatal hour of 6 am by an obnoxiously sonorous call from the reception. As a squadron of two, we decided to ignore this rambunctious advice and slept in until the healthy time of 6:45. From then, we headed to the morning buffet for a scrumptious breakfast of steamed rice, coffee, cold ham, mango, fried rice, egg, and ambrosial orange juice. In a post-breakfast haze, our entire faction met in the hotel’s lobby, started an intriguing puzzle made impossible by its numerous pieces with no image on them, and boarded the bus, heading to the King’s Palace. Our endearing guide, Mr Chanseng, recounted to us the epic of its design and construction, from the basis of colors signifying different religions (yellow means Buddhism and white means Hinduism, while blue represents royalty) to the intricate detailing of human-like creatures with bird’s beaks and claws. We saw hundreds of silver and golden idols of elephants and replications of Buddha. We heroically removed our shoes before setting foot inside a silver-floored house of groundbreaking and moving intricate moldings and carvings made from those precious metals. The splendiferous metals and ornate architecture forced us to recognize the king's and his past generation's materialism, even in respect to their history, culture and religions.
En route to the cement statue of a model-sized Angkor Wat, we rendez-vous-ed with a fellow cadre of driven students, but this time: Australians. After a sweltering beginning of the day, we took the bus to a center for Cambodian film-making and preservation and viewed an Oscar-nominated and award-winning film
called The Missing Picture, or in its original French, L’Image Manquante. The filmmaker, a victim of the Khmer Rouge, used miniature clay statuettes to depict images of his childhood from before and during his forced time spent as a ditch digger and sickbay attendant. He used clips of film footage shot during the Khmer Rouge by a cinematographer supported by the dictatorship itself. After the film, our posse sat in silence, speechless
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| The archive room at Bophana AV Resource Center |
Afterwards, we headed on our bubblegum-pink bus to a Free Trade restaurant run by an organization called “Daughters,” which helps try to remove Cambodian girls from the sex trafficking industry. “Daughters” specializes in giving these women a place to work to assimilate them back into a healthy lifestyle where they are free to live their own lives. There Turner and I ate a mango chicken baguette sandwich which preceded two delicious desserts. Full and sleepy, we headed back to Cambodian Living Arts for a dance workshop. The six dancers performed experts from their performance, wowing us with it’s complexity and vibrancy. Afterwards, we got the privilege of learning two of the dances that they performed: the coconut and monkey dance. After learning the dances, we performed for the group. Though our performance of the coconut dance went horribly awry, we still had a tremendous amount of fun. Sweaty from our hard work in a 95 degree room with 100% humidity, we got into the bus and headed back to the hotel. After two hours of blogging and napping, we went down and enjoyed a delicious dinner at the hotel. --Maya C. & Turner
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| Chanseng models one of his scarf designs |
Today was our first full day in Cambodia, and it was jam-packed. After breakfast, Chanseng, our much adored tour guide, took us to the Royal Palace of Cambodia. With its classic Khmer roofs and ornate gilding, the Royal Palace dominates the diminutive skyline of Phnom Penh. Despite the heat, we were all able to appreciate the grandeur of the palace, and Chanseng explained to us the significance of the various spires and sculptures adorning most of the buildings. Many of us were taken aback by the perplexing lack of security in the palace--for instance a 17 kg 24 karat gold statue with the largest diamond in Cambodia on its forehead seemed to be guarded only by a 2 inch padlock and a couple listless security guards idling around unattentively. Much of the palace was clearly influenced by a variety of religions and cultures, as we saw many Buddha statues, French chandeliers, Hindu gods, and Khmer architecture, often side by side.
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| Dancing at Cambodian Living Arts |
After completing the tour of the temple, we headed to a screening of the film "The Missing Picture," an Oscar-nominated documentary about the Cambodian dystopicide that took place in the late 70's under the Khmer Rouge regime. The film left all of us speechless as we attempted to process the unspeakable horrors presented to us in the film. Afterwards we were shown an archive featuring clips of real footage taken by Khmer Rouge cameramen. For lunch, we went to a small restaurant/shop run by the organization "Daughters of Cambodia," which helps facilitate a path to self-sufficiency for young girls in the sex industry. After eating some delicious sandwiches, we were shown into a back room where we saw a video detailing the work and goals of the organization. "Daughters," as it is know for short, provides jobs, professional and domestic skills training, and a basic education to each girl they take in. All of our waitresses were beneficiaries of the great work of "Daughters." The money from our meal and shopping all went to the program.
Afterwards, we drove to the Cambodian Living Arts headquarters, where we met several of its dancers and musicians. They first showed us a few traditional dances, which were both graceful and energetic. They then showed us the steps and techniques, and before long we were joining them! Although it must have been 100 degrees in that tiny dance room, it was definitely a fun experience. It was exciting to not only see up close the old art forms that Arn Chorn Pond is reviving, but to have also taken part in it. We then had a bit of free time in the hotel before eating a nice dinner. As soon as we finished, we hopped back on our bus to see an actual dance show put on by CLA. The show featured a variety of elaborate dances, each of which were from different regions and ancient peoples within Cambodia. There were spiritual, violent, and playful sets; all accompanied by musicians and singers playing traditional instruments. After the show, Arn brought our entire group up on stage where we met and socialized with the young dancers, ranging from our age to their late 20's. They were all extremely friendly, and like "Daughters," explained Arn, CLA helps them to escape the world of sex trafficking through the arts employment. They were very grateful that we came to see their performance, and they hope to continue the connection between Poly and CLA. --Will and Peter
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| Learning monkey dance |
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| Yummy snack at CLA! |
